Episode Review: Hawaii Five-0 “Ua Lawe Wale” (“Taken”)

by knot move

Quick Recap:

A young surfing champ is kidnapped, and she happens to have a heart condition that conveniently gives them a ticking clock to find her on. A little investigation leads them to the fact that she was adopted, and that someone claiming to be her birthmother, who they all thought was dead, had contacted her through a mysterious man who had dozens of fake identities. Tracking him led to another girl they thought was another kidnapping victim, but she told them that he was an extractor, and that he saved her from a cult. There was only one cult nearby, and it turned out that the leader was the missing girl’s grandfather. So that’s where she was, and they got to go in and rescue her.

Meanwhile, the new Gov assigned an agent from the FBI to keep track of Five-0, against her wishes as much as against McGarrett’s. and he sidelined her for a while until she could prove she was worth using for her skills, if not for trust. There was some attempt at what looked like the start of a will-they-won’t-they, but who knows this early on.

Also meanwhile, Jenna was reading McGarrett’s file for unknown and presumably nefarious purposes. He asked why she was seeming to distracted lately, and she said that there was some ‘chatter’ that lead her old boss back the CIA to think maybe her dead fiancee was alive, so she was going back to investigate. As far as we know, she left at the end of the episode.

And Kono had her hearing. It didn’t go well. She was fired and is no longer a cop.

Review:

The case this week was exciting, and led to the Stunt of the Night: Steve on a horse, galloping after a personal plane, as it heads for takeoff over a sheer cliff. He shot out the tires and saved the girl, but they missed the chance to have this impressionable fourteen year old develop a huge crush on the cop who literally came barreling in on a horse (though it wasn’t white) to rescue her.

The better part of the episode, though, was the shifting of power that’s going on. The Gov isn’t taking any of Steve’s guff, and the new girl is supposed to help with that, though she hasn’t stopped him from doing anything crazy yet. said newgirl is smart and snappy and, though young, has a clarity of purpose that makes her likable. Jenna is being shifty, and has conveniently left the obligation to be in the office all the time right after we learned that she’s got something to do with Wo Fat–and she’s still nervous and sweet, which helps the theories (below) fall in her favor. And poor Kono. She had to go through most of her storyline alone, because everyone else had to find the girl, and looked pretty broken up at the end. This is a lot of change to happen in one episode, and it says a lot for how the new season is going to keep shaking things up.

Pros:

– Chin Ho on a motorcycle = hot.

– The quip from the new girl–“How long have you two been married?”–about the Steve / Danno bickerfest of this episode.

– Riding to the rescue on horses. Fab.

– The new girl isn’t hateful, which is perfect. She’s smart and level-headed and it looks like she’s got enough toughness to keep up with the boys.

– There’s an interesting background paranoia growing up in this show, and it’s starting to be a situation of ‘who can we trust?’, and that can only make the team tighter, while also making inevitable betrayals that much worse.

– Max! It’s nice how the cast is growing and their network is spreading out.

Cons:

– Are we only allowed to have one girl on the team at a time?

– Why wasn’t Chin helping his cousin through her hearing more?

– No Terry O’Quinn. People sort of just walk off screen and disappear on this show.

Theories:

– Kono can’t be off the show, so she needs to find a new way to help them out. She’s in the perfect position to become a PI, and that means she could go places and do things that someone carrying a badge wouldn’t be allowed to do, because of the professional concerns thing.

– Jenna is still being shifty, but maybe she’s a victim of Wo Fat as much as a co-conspirator. Did he convince her her finacee was still alive to get a handle on her? Is he using her to get at Five-0? Did she leave because she wants to protect them, or because she needs to be away from them for whatever she’s doing? And is she trying to play Wo Fat as much as he’s playing her?